Man sentenced to five years in prison for comment in support of banned Russian Volunteer Corps

A Russian man has been sentenced to five years and a month in prison for “justifying terrorism” over a comment he made online in support of the Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC), which fights alongside the Armed Forces of Ukraine against the Russian military, human rights group OVD-Info reported on Thursday.

In May 2023, Andrey Gneushev left a comment on a public Telegram channel praising anti-war activist Vladislav Shipitsyn for throwing ketchup at Russian writer Viktor Shenderovich while he was on a book tour in Lithuania. Shipitsyn had targeted Shenderovich for insufficiently using his public platform to criticise the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In his comment, Gneushev lambasted the “hatred” shown in Russian society toward those who made a difference “such as the RVC, and anyone who directly supports them, such as Shipitsyn,” calling it the “banal envy of lazy, cowardly losers who justify their laziness, incompetence and cowardice with pacifism”.

Banned in Russia as a terrorist organisation, the RVC describes its mission as the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity within its 1991 borders and the overthrow of Vladimir Putin.

Gneushev, who had been under house arrest prior to the verdict, was the sole breadwinner for his wife and five children, one of his relatives told OVD-Info, adding that his wife had been fired in October due to the case against him. During the investigation, the authorities also threatened to take his children into care and shoot the family’s dog, the relative told OVD-Info.